Extremely sorry for taking so long to upload this one. I just started a new fic so there's a lot of work to get done to keep things on the up and up. Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.

"Wrap the flames around yourself. Tighter, Tighter, Tighter. As close as you can get without burning your skin. Trust your power, your magic to protect you" Armand's shouts of instruction rang across the manor grounds as I practised a piece of magic that only he knew, apparently.

The firestorm spell Dumbledore had used in the sixth book was only half of the one Armand was trying to teach me. A firestorm that turned everything around me to ash while I remained safely within. Untouched. The best spell for dealing with Inferi. Armand had called it and I was inclined to agree. The flames even had the feature of getting hotter the closer they were to the eye of the storm- me. What part of the spell made me immune to the flames themselves? I had no idea. The ignorance scared me. Armand couldn't understand it either. Something about the magic made it impossible for the fire to burn the caster but that something was unclear.

After pulling the flames as close as I dared, and holding the spell for a minute, I dismissed it with a deep breath.

"Beautiful. Beautiful. Truly my descendant. Your control over the element continues to impress me. THere remains only one hurdle for you to overcome" He said with a smile on his face that had me matching his expression with a wary look.

"Fiendfyre isn't to be played with,Armand. Not here, at least."

"Where else then? We've discussed this before. You want to control the flames of hell then you use them somewhere you can't afford to destroy. You risk life and limb and trust your magic to see you through. There is only do or do not." His voice was tired. We'd had this argument dozens of times already, and I even agreed with his logic. There really wasn't a better way to ensure I was fully committed to mastering the spell than risking my safety and protection.

Magic worked in strange ways. "Fine. If I lose control, don't expect me to save you though" I warned the painting as I took a few more steps back.

"All your hatred. Your anger, your disgust. Your lust, your fear. Fiendfyre is unique among dark arts because it does not run on only one emotion. To summon the flames of hell, you must fuel them with every negative emotion you have within you. Let them all burn in the fire beyond all fires" There was something in his voice when he spoke of the spell that told me Armand wasn't completely there mentally when fiendfyre was involved. Dark arts madness wasn't just an invention to scare children from playing with deadly magic.

Dark magic hungered to be used. True dark arts had a sentience to them that drew you in and kept you there. When you got deep enough, there wasn't any problem you wouldn't try solving with a cruciatus or entrails-expelling curse.

I pushed the thoughts along with the rest of my apprehension aside and brought all my negative emotions to the surface. I cleared my mind of all things positive and snarled out, fiendfyre. A distant part of me noted how the truly impressive dark arts had either very short incantations or none at all. Power, and Intent were all that mattered to the trueest dark arts.

The flames of hell took no time in spewing from my wand like a tsunami. I focused and stemmed the flow before focusing on the flames already here.

The fire was battering at my will in the way even Hermione's harshest legilimency attacks never managed. Thinking of her almost had the fire smashing through my resistance. I cleared my mind and tried my level best to keep my thoughts on the here and now. Armand's screams of instruction were drowned out by the blood rushing in my ear. I heard my heartbeat speeding up as the minutes passed.

After a few more minutes of thorough attack, the fire stopped and I made my second mistake of the day. I relaxed. The sentient flames wasted not a second in escaping my control and rushing at the manor. I snarled in frustration and focused on the fire again. It took an herculean application of will to grab the fire in time and reassert my dominance. After that, the fire coalesced into the shape of a large dragon.

The beast rushed at me and snarled in my face, but I kept my focus and after a tense standoff, the dragon bowed. I breathed a sigh of relief but kept my focus, not keen to make the same mistake twice. I dismissed the spell with a wave of my wand and thoughts of peace and contentment.

I turned to Armand's portrait after a few minutes spent taking deep breaths and thanking the gods I didn't believe in for not taking my soul in those moments. He was smiling in pride, and I joined him. My smile graduated into a series of chuckles, and those chuckles blossomed into full-blown laughter.

"I told you. I told you you could do it. The flames of hell. Uncontrollable, they'd called them, but I knew it. I fucking knew it." Armand howled.

"Wait. What? You couldn't control fiendfyre?" I asked in confusion. His words seemed to pain that picture at least.

"No, I couldn't. Not before this portrait was made at least. I always theorized it could be possible, now I have complete proof of it" He saids with an even wider smile.

I looked at the man in horror, dumbfounded. I just risked my life on the words of a man that wasn't even certain of those words. I felt like pulling out my hair, or cursing the painting to oblivion, or a dozen more things, but I contented myself with stalking away and leaving my ancestor to battle with the brewing storm. He'd survive.

I went back into the manor and found a beautiful spread of breakfast waiting for me. Tilly waited at the table with a smile on her face. I smiled back and cursed my gullibility. I'd risked her life as well with that stunt.

Breakfast was short and quick. I rushed through the meal while planning out my day. It was the 12th of February, a day before I'd have to return to Hogwarts for the last two tasks. Multiple masters of magical law had examined the contract of the goblet and had come to the conclusion that Fluer and I would have to participate in two more tasks to free ourselves from the goblet's contract. My killing of Victor was excused because it was in self-defense, and the goblet cared little for trifle things like one competitor killing another. That was usually the job of the hosting ministry.

I went to the solar and began my second activity for the day. Managing the Malfoy estate. Lucius had his hands in a whole lot of pies. The family had investments in everything; from real estate to shops in Diagon Alley, to a potion ingredients harvesting business, and even Nimbus broom company. The illegal investments were even more far-reaching. Everything from magical poachers, to illegal unicorn farms and human trafficking. Lucius was a poster-boy for diversification. No matter what direction the economy moved in, the family would be okay. It was a nightmare managing all of it, and without Lucius' memories in my head, I would be floundering at the thought.

His sudden death had probably cost the family a lot. Not in inheritance tax or anything, since the entire family wealth was in a trust that the head of the family got to manage. We lost money in the fact that Lucius' business associates would have been quick to cheat him out of things if they felt he could no longer do anything about it.

If I wasn't as bored as I was, I would have probably allowed it happen. The family was wealthy beyond comprehension, after all and the funds were mere pittances in comparison, but I had nothing better to do.

I dressed in a nice pair of robes and walked to the gate of the manor. It was a long five minute walk in cloudy weather. The new wartime wards blocked any form of apparation. Not even Tilly could apparate within the manor.

I held the coordinates of the business in mind and turned on the spot. I appeared right outside a powerful set of wards. I'd scouted the place before, so I knew what I was getting involved in. There was another reason I'd allowed Armand bait me into practising fiendfyre today.

I waved my wand in front of me with the thoughts of the flames of hell and said the word, fiendfyre. This time, the flames' assualt on my will was easily pushed to the side. I directed the fires of hell to focus on the wards in front of me, and I got a front-row seat to the flames of hell eating raw magic. The wards fell under their assault in less than a few minutes. Conscious of my time restraints, I dispelled the spell. At least I tried to. After having a meal, the fire's assault on me increased, and it took from into a basilisk that tried to devour me.

The fire was less than a feet away from me when I finally ended the spell with thoughts of Hermione's smile. I steeled my will and waved my wand over me to cast the disapparition jinx as well as the floo and portkey blocking wards. I'd practiced them till they became second notice.

The cottage in front of me case to life before my eyes. I was surprised the man could sleep through the assault on his wards. I walked towards it and leaned to the side a few feet in to dodge the cleaving curse sent my way.

"Finite incantatum" I whispered while waving my wand across the garden. His disillusionment charm fell easily and to give him some credit, he didn't slow down for a second after realising he'd lost his advantage.

I dodged around the killing curse and batted aside his gouging charm. 'Levicorpus' I thought while flicking my wand, and watched him lose his footing and become suspended in the air, dangling from his ankle. His attempt to crucio me failed as I disarmed him with another flick.

"Tut tut. Mr Glover. You really shouldn't be doing this" I said with a chuckle.

"Who do you think you are? Do you know who I am? I'll bury you for this." He shouted after realising that he was well and truly done for.

"Ah. You don't recognise me? I'm a bit hurt by that. It's afternoon, Galbert. Take a good look and give me your best guess."

I watched realization spread across his face. "Lucius's son. That's who you are. Daken, isn't it?"

"Draco" I corrected absently. "Now that you know who I am, I'm sure it won't take long for you to figure out why I'm here" I said as I conjured a comfortable armchair and plopped down into it.

"The money. I swear it's coming. The poachers have just been having difficulty finding anything these days."

"Oh really… I'll find out for myself. Legilimens" His mind was an open book to my reading. Whatever knowledge of occlumency he possessed, insuffient to keep him safe from me.

"And what of Lucius' share?" One of the poachers had asked.

"He's dead. We keep it" My captive had replied with a greedy smile

I left his mind and looked at his shocked face. I guess being mind-raped isn't something that happened to him very often. I summoned his wand to my hand and released him from the levicorpus, before the blood flow did some permanent damage.

He lay on the floor coughing and crying and I finally spoke out after leaving him there. "Get me my money, Galbart, and spread the word. The next person that steals from me won't be lucky enough to get the chance to pay me back."

I walked out of the cottage without looking back so he didn't see the smile on my face. That was so cool.

My next stop was Gringotts. I continued what I'd been doing for the past few weeks. I walked into the bank and withdrew 10,000 galleons in gold. The absolute limit I was allowed to and made my way back home to stash it. After that, I started my other ritual for the day.

"Point me, cocaine" I whispered as I disillusioned myself. I was on the hunt today, and it only took about two false flags for me to find a gang hideout.

I had no trouble walking in, and after confirming the presence of the drugs and money I needed, I started my plan. A stunner took out thefirst two men inside, and I moved in without difficulty. The other two gangsters in the building didn't put up any fight and were quickly subdued.

I made my way to the room where the drugs and money were stored, and counted the money with a quick flick of my wand. "Seventy thousand pounds." I said with a whistle. The money was quickly transferred into my bag, with the drugs following suit.

Since none of the gangsters had seen me, or knew anything about me, I was inclined to leave them alive, but I ended up changing my mind out of an overabundance of culture.

I used an incendio on some exposed wiring and watched the flames spread and begin to cover the rest of the building. Once it had built up enough that there was little chance of the building being saved, I took my cue and apparated away with a sharp pop.

My next destination, the bank. In this present day and age, there was very little technology for catching people like me doing things like what I was. I had no doubts I wasn't the first person to try something like this before. I had no trouble creating a fake identity and history in the muggle world, and from there a bank account to store my ill-gotten wealth was child's play.

Having my banker invest that wealth in a very specific list of companies was actually harder than I'd expected. Even with a glamour charm, the man was most unwilling to just take my word for it and do what I wanted. I'd ended up having to confound the poor fool, as well-meaning as he was. I wasn't going to be missing the opportunities in front of me. After all, how many people could say they got the chance to invest in Apple, Microsoft and Amazon so early in their lifetimes.

I'd be making a killing in the next two decades. If I lived that long.

XXXXXX

The day of the tournament's conclusion dawned bright and early. To end things, Fluer and I would be made to duel twice. The winner of the second duel would be the winner of the Triwizard tournament. The entire thing was going to be extremely anti-climatic at the least.

I dressed in my best dueling robes, an all black ensemble with some minor padding on the forearms and shins. With how strong spells were, the padding would be useless for deflecting or even saving me from anything dangerous, but they allowed me do some crazy manoeuvring on the floor without bruising so they were worth it still, especially since they had very little effect on my flexibility and movement speed.

A hearty breakfast at Tilly's behest later and I found myself apparating to the Hogwarts' gates for the duel.

A/N; Thanks for reading. We just started with chapter 20 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you can. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile. Shorter than usual. A bit of a homage to our old 2k chapters.